Questions here are from which I am asked by some people.
3,Can I study these styles despite my advanced age?
4,How long is enough for practicing everyday?
5,How can I develop internal power?
6,Can I study other styles too if I want to practice internal style as well?
7,Why do we practice martial arts and Qi Gong?
8,Is there some religion content in your Qi Gong or martial arts?
9,Can I use this Qi Gong for self-defense?
10,Do I need to take some Chinese herbs to enhance my body when I practice this style?
11,Are internal martial arts better than external styles?
12, Which one should I study, Xing Yi? Tai Chi, Ba Gua or Qi Gong?
13,When did you begin to teach martial arts and Qi Gong?
1,Why do you use the name of Wudang, what does it mean?What does your logo mean? What is the meaning of the calligraphy on both sides of the main page?
Wudang is the name of a famous mountain in China. Wudang is the name of internal style as well, because, in China, people say Shaolin is external and Wudang is internal. Then classify Xing Yi, Tai Chi and Ba Gua as Wudang style internal martial arts. This is the official classification of different styles.
Our School use this name because we are teaching internal martial arts and Qi Gong.
As for the logo, I designed it by myself although my artistic sense is not good. The red flame stand for energy, power. It is the changed pattern of the first letter of Wudang which is the name of our school. In the flame, there is the Yin-Yang pattern which tell people that this is the Daoist style(In north America, many other styles use this pattern although they are not Daoist styles) So that, This logo has the meaning of energy, Yin Yang, Wudang and others.
As for the calligraphy, It means "be humble". The characters are Chinese. It says: The ocean is big, and all of the water from rivers, lakes made it, because the ocean always looks lower(humble) than others. The mountain is very high, but, it never says " I am very high" although the mountain has touch the sky. This is the Chinese wisdom: BE HUMBLE. And, I believe there are so many levels of sky after this sky.
This is a good question, and many people asked me this question because people want to know the lineage of the teacher.
I have many teachers, but, my first teacher is my grandfather(Yang Qinglin, a very famous Xing Yi-Ba Gua grandmaster in China, he was the students of Zhang Zhaodong who was the founder of Xing Yi-Ba Gua palm). And, most of my basic training of Xing Yi and Ba Gua and Tai Chi was from him when I was 8 years old. I studied Chen Tai Chi from my uncle, Yang Fengwu(a senior student of Chen Zhaokui who was the son of Chen Fake), my uncle was good at Fa Jin and Tai Chi application which is the secret of Tai Chi. In order to get the advantages of different internal styles, I visited many masters in China and exchange the martial arts' knowledge with them. Because there is a famous martial art proverb"When your kungfu is good, finding a better teacher is not as good as visiting your martial art friends". And, I still keep the contact with many of them in order to share our knowledge.
In order to help me to study more, my grandfather and my father introduced me to study from other masters such as Hu Jinling(Xing Yi master, student of Han Ziheng, grandstudent of Li Cunyi), Fu Shoubo(student of Cheng Youxin), Zhang Sonlin(grandmaster of Xing Yi, good at explore force). Sun Dalai and Ma Hong(grandmaster of Chen Tai Chi in China).
For my Qigong Studying, I studied different styles. I studied Zhineng Qigong from the founder, Dr. Pang, so I got the certificate which can show my training and level(The number is 000340). I studied Daoist meditation from Yang Meijun, the grandmaster of Wild Goose Qi gong and Daoist meditation, from Cao Zhenayng, the Taoist priest in White Cloud temple of Beijing. I studied Potential-Ability Development Qigong from the founder, grandmaster Li Shuhe in Tianjin. And, I studied Qi Gong from my grandfather, my uncle and some other teachers too.
As my TCM(Traditional Chinese Medicine) training,in the beginning, I studied it from my uncle. Then, I went to school to take the formal training in Tianjin TCM university.
3,Can I study these styles despite my advanced age?
Everyone can study internal martial arts no matter how old he or she is. Because there are two ways of internal style: first is internal power. Second is self-defense. People can develop internal power even though his physical situation does not permit him to develop self-defense ability. So, the age is not a big problem when people take the training correctly.
I n internal style history, there are so many good masters who began to study the style when they were not very young(some of them older than 40). In the end, some became grandmaster. Because this style is different from external style which focus on physical training mostly.And, for Qi Gong training, because it is for health and good willing, there is no age limitation.
Please remember: people will become old only when they think of that they are old by themselves. So, do not make your young-age become old so early. And, you will feel that you are becoming younger are you practice it.
4,How long is enough for practicing everyday?
Usually, people say that practicing longer is better.
But, in my opinion, one hour serious training is better than 10 hours' casual training.
And, when you are very tired, you should not practice too long. The reason is: When people is tired, their bad habits of practice(such as incline the body, bend the back, stiff the muscle) will come.
And, we should practice our martial arts and Qi Gong in our daily life, try to combine it with our life. This is the way of internal style.
So, my advice is: use your heart, use your spirit, use your time, use your energy, use it into your daily activity. If you can do this, other people will not know how many hours you practice everyday. Because all of the 24 hours is for your practice. Most important thing is the quality instead of quantity.
Practice hard, but not hurt.
5,How can I develop internal power?
In order to answer this question, we should know what is internal power. Usually, people use some descriptions to answer it. But, that answer is only the effect of internal power.
In my opinion, the internal power is the combination of breathing method(make the external Qi work for internal Qi), meditation skill(for developing the mental force), correct posture(give the channel for Qi to move smoothly and make your physical body to work) and self-defense technique(internal power can not work for self-defense without skilled technique).
Internal power is not magic, people can feel it after they get it, and, people can use it naturally when they practice it.
So, how to get it?
I think I have mentioned the answer above: breathing, meditation, posture and technique. People should always remind himself during practice according to the four important points.
6,Can I study other styles too if I want to practice internal style as well?
I think it is possible. Because the internal style can become the complementary training to external style. Usually, the external is stiff, people focus on physical training too much. Internal style will give them internal training which can perfect his external practice.
In my school, there are a lot of students who have a long time experience of practicing external styles, and, so of them have very good foundation through their external styles' training.
And, there are some students in my school still take some other training such as Shaolin, Karate, Judo at the same time. I told them, you can take any training when you will you can make a progress. And, I believe, different style will give people different benefit. There is not any conflict between different styles because all of the styles are for the benefit of our human being.
7,Why do we practice martial arts and Qi Gong?
Well, it is hard to say. When I was young, I just did it without any reason which I could know. But, maybe the only reason is that I was born in a martial art family and I had to studied it in order to transfer it from my elder generation to younger generation in my family. Now, I understand it. Because I got the beneficial effect after I did it.
First, people can get self-discipline through doing it. When I was very young, I had to get up very early in the morning no matter how sleepy I was. And, I had to take the training from some teachers such as my grandfather. They were really strict! So, I had to be very disciplined, otherwise, they would correct my mistakes with their stick instead of verbal words(I do not like this, but, it really worked in my body.) They used the traditional way to train me,they told me that martial arts are not only for fighting, for self-defense, for health, but also for make your spirit strong and make your personality staunch enough. After I was old enough, I understood that they told me the truth. I believe that practicing martial arts can give people more self-discipline. And, this kind of experience helped me a lot because I passed some hard time in my life.
Second, martial arts can give me more self-control. There are so many gates which we should pass when we practice martial arts, like the way of life. So, I understood that we have to know how to control ourselves, not only body but also our mind. Like doing martial arts, we have to pass a lot of tests in our whole life. At the same time, there are so many tempts in our life when we want to get our destination. So, the self-control is more important than before. When I practiced it by myself, I am always thinking that the biggest enemy is not other person, it is ourselves. Because it very hard for us to control ourselves. During doing this, I realized a lot of weakness of myself, and, I try to make my power of self-control better and better. Then, I can make myself better when my technique of martial arts become better.
Third, martial arts can give people a healthy physical body, then, our healthy physical body will make us energetic, full of energy. And, our vigorous body will make us do everything optimistically and effectively. I believe the healthy physical body can have very obvious effect to our psychological health. And, they can effect to each other. Like I talked above(first and second), the psychological training can effect our physical body also.
Fourth, we will feel more confident after we do it. Usually, people want to be confident. However, only the person who have the psychological and physical health will possess this kind of feeling in the world. Doing martial arts can help people get both health without taking pills. This is the most economy and effective way.
Fifth, I would like to talk something of Qi Gong beside talking of martial arts. In my opinion, Qi Gong is the method to get the self-exploration. People will know the world not only from their sense organs but also understand it from their inside of their body. And , they will feel more happiness from inside of their body after they do it. The world will become more and more beautiful. Because the happiness from inside is different it from outside of our body. We need peaceful mind and healthy energy. This is what the Qi Gong can give us.
In the end, I would like to say, Chinese internal martial arts and Qi Gong can give us much more than what we expect.
8,Is there some religion content in your Qi Gong or martial arts?
Not at all.
In my opinion, martial arts and Qi Gong is only a kind of sport or exercise which has special effect. Although they are practiced by monk, or priest, they are not religion. Originally, people used etiquette in martial art training. But, that's only for respect , not for religion.
And, in Chinese internal style, we study philosophy in order to make our martial arts' practice better. Because internal style has very closed relation with Chinese philosophy, such as Yin Yang and the nature. But, philosophy is not religion. Chinese philosophy focuses on the way of life. I think most people understand it.
And, I do not like putting martial arts and religion together.
9,Can I use this Qi Gong for self-defense?
Qi Gong can be used as self-defense. But, that should be martial art Qi Gong.
Zhineng Qi Gong is for health, not for self-defence.
However, Zhineng Qi Gong can help people get internal power which will help you for self-defense when people use it properly.
10,Do I need to take some Chinese herb for enhance my body when I practice this style?
Well, it depends. Usually, people do not need it. But, people can take it if they feel their Qi is insufficient. Just take some tonic herb, that is enough. I still remember, when I practiced in China, my grandfather gave me some herb pills to enhance my Qi because I was very young when I did this style.
As for some people practice some hard Kungfu such as iron-sand palm, they should use herb decoction to wash their palms, even take some herb, that will be better. Otherwise, their palms will be hurt.
In internal style, we practice soft-palm. So, we do not need herb decoction for washing our palms.
11,Is internal martial art better than external style?
I do not think so. Different styles have different advantages, and everything depends on individual practice.
Martial art is a big family, no one is better than others.
"We should be proud of our style, but never say this style is better than others."
Only people's practice make different styles become good or bad. None of styles will make people bad if he or she practice it properly.
12, Which one should I study, Xing Yi? Tai Chi, Ba Gua or Qi Gong?
It depends on what you want to get, or what you want to do. Because practice different style will give you different benefits.
Xing Yi is good for developing internal power and visible force. It has very outstanding self-defense feature. And, there are less forms in Xing Yi compare with others. Because Xing Yi focus on developing internal power. People will get self-defence ability in short time after they practice Xing Yi. And, to any style, no matter internal or external, Xing Yi can help them to enhance power.
As for Chen Tai Chi, it is very helpful for people to understand and get the special Soft-Force, Silk-Reeling, Absorbing the Force from Enemy, getting the flexibility of body and Chinese fighting strategy. This is a very deep style, not only for heath, for self-defence, but also for life, this is the way of Tai Chi. So, people should select this style when they want to contact with Chinese internal martial arts.
As for Ba Gua, it is a very useful fighting style. But, it needs some martial arts' background for the person who want to do it. And, Ba Gua has a lot of body work, walking, turning. So, this style is for the person who want to make their present training better, no matter which style they are doing.
As for Qi Gong, Zhineng style(which the only style we are teaching in our school) is developed for health, for prevention and healing of illnesses. So, Zhineng Qi Gong is suitable to everyone.
Besides, my advice is, when you want to select one style, please try to do some research on Internet, or read some books, or visit some school. Try to know the basic knowledge of this style, then, try it. And, my experience is: follow your heart, your feeling will give you good answer.
13,When did you begin to teach martial arts and Qi Gong?
I began to teach martial arts when I was a students in high school, but, it was not very formal, because that just for some friends in school.
Then, It became better when I was in university. That was formal teaching(every day during week day). Firstly, I taught Xing Yi, then, Ba Gua and Qi Gong. The Chen Tai Chi was the last one which I taught in my teaching experience.
I moved to Montreal from China around March,2001. In the beginning, I taught martial arts and Qi Gong at Club Kozak(a Russian martial art school in Verdun which close to my home) Later on, I had myself school in downtown Montreal after Oct.,2001. From that time, I begain to teach students in my own school.